Lucille Lortel Awards to Honor Wasserstein and Shanley, May 1

The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers' 21st Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway will be presented on Monday, May 1st at Dodger Stages (340 West 50th Street) at 7 PM. A celebration will follow at Ruth's Chris Steak House (148 West 51st Street). A cocktail reception honoring all the nominees will take place on April 17th at Therapy (348 West 52nd Street).

Playwright Wendy Wasserstein will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously; Wasserstein died on January 30th at the age of 55. Wasserstein earned the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for The Heidi Chronicles — which also won her a Tony Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Her other plays include Isn't It Romantic, The Sisters Rosensweig, Uncommon Women and Others, An American Daughter, Old Money and the recent Third.

John Patrick Shanley will be inducted onto the Playwrights' Sidewalk; Shanley received the Lortel Award, Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize as the author of Doubt; his other plays include Defiance (currently running at the Manhattan Theatre Club), Four Dogs and a Bone, Italian American Reconciliation, Beggars in the House of Plenty, and the screenplay for Moonstruck.

The nominations will be announced April 4th. A cocktail reception to congratulate all of the nominees will be held on April 17th. A limited number of tickets, for the ceremony only, will go on sale to the public through the Dodger Stages Box Office and Telecharge.com (212-239-6200), beginning April 4th.

Awarded since 1986, the Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the League by special arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Foundation. Additional support is provided by Theatre Develoment Fund.  Visit www.lortel.org for more information on the Lucille Lortel Awards.